Investing in children's mental health services is excellent value for money and will bring a lifetime of benefits to young people, their families, communities and the economy as a whole...

Investing in children's mental health examines the costs and the benefits of a range of interventions to prevent or treat some of the most common mental health conditions that affect children and young people.

It finds that there is a wide range of interventions for conduct disorder, anxiety, depression and ADHD that not only improve children's mental health but also lead to substantial economic benefits including future savings in public spending. Group parenting programmes for conduct disorder in young children, for example, generate measurable benefits of at least £3 for every £1 invested, while group cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety in adolescence produces benefits of £31 per £1.

The report concludes that under-investment in children's mental health support is a false economy. But it also warns that to achieve the best value for money, children’s mental health services need to reach out to those who need them most and to be delivered to a high standard. And it finds that there are significant gaps in evidence in one or two areas of great need and growing concern, such as self-harm and eating disorders.

Having begun his career in academic libraries, Adrian Janes has subsequently worked extensively in public libraries, chiefly in enquiry work as an Information Services librarian. In this role he has had particular responsibility for information from both the UK Government and the European Union. He wrote a detailed report on sources for the latter which was published by FreePint in 2007, and has contributed articles to FreePint and ResourceShelf. He is involved in training in information literacy and the use of online reference resources.

A Contributing Editor to DocuTicker, he also write reviews for Pennyblackmusic.

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